Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I went to look for Calif. Black head snakes with my son on Sunday, and we saw seven CHL's, two striped racers, and a snake what looked like a Calif. Glossy Snake, the big thing was one of the larger CHL's looked like it was part porkupine (not sure how it's spelled) but it was light tan long spines and horns all over and his tail looked like a club with spikes, could this be something other than a CHL???

Thanks
onthefly

That sounds a bit odd. Do you have any pictures of it?
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file:///C:/Documents and Settings/Owner/My Documents/My Pictures/Picture/Picture 380.jpg

I'm blowing this picture thing, Mark I E-Mailed you the pic. maybe you can post it for me

Thanks, Cecil

He is a nice looking guy for sure.

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Thanks Mark, You siad that this is some what normal, it's by far the largist one I've seen, for the most part they are half this size , do they get spikier as they mature? How can you tell that it looks like a male. I think it's great that there is so much knowledge on this board and you guys are willing to share it with us, my son and I are soaking up so much info. on Herp's from you guys, it's lots of fun and keeping my young son out of truble we are going to calif. city this week end in hopes of seeing a Desert Iguana and or a lepard Lizard, not sure were to look, but I'm sure something will cross our path.

Thanks again

They do appear more spikey as they get older I guess. It's difficult to tell for sure the sex from this type of photo, but usually the base of the tale is wider and remains so for a short distance while the females may start wide but tend to taper sharply right away.
We are all glad to share and in fact are all still learning, which to me is what makes Horned Lizards so interesting.

Good luck in Cali City. I've seen leopards out that way but honestly haven't spent enough time to run across much else. If you can be out hunting around by 8:30 or so you should see a lot until it gets too hot.

Here is a picture I took a couple of years back that shows similar characteristics. This is another adult male.

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That's a real nice picture, can you tell me how to post them and I will share some of the one I take, if I can get them to stay still